BREAKING NEWS:New Doctor Who Companion Announced, Ben Browder to guest

Most of the spaghetti westerns where filmed in Spain.

Is new companion for the 2013 season or something later this year? (I can't watch it anyway I don't get BBCA anymore.)

>>but remember this was Spanish CALIFORNIA, so still the pre-America American West.<<

Makes sense to me. Spanish California was sparsely populated, and most of the people likely to speak Spanish as a first language likely came directly from Spain, or were only a generation or so removed from people who came directly from Spain. Particularly nobles/upper class types like the Diego family. Most everyone else would have been an Indian of some sort, or a few trappers and traders from France, England, and maybe Russia. What most people now think of as "Hispanic-looking" is Mestizo, which is very different from how Spaniards and Portuguese look.

My doctor is from Spain. He's Castillian. Blonde hair, blue eyes, olive skin, handsome guy, but doesn't look at all like the American stereotype of what Spanish Speakers look like. His wife is Mexican. The funny thing is that it also doesn't fit the Mestizo stereotype of what Spanish Speakers look like:

"Man, I hate going to Mexico to visit my wife's family."
"Oh? Why?"
"Well, I love her family, but I hate Mexico City, just an awful place, and whenever I go walking around down town, I hear people saying 'Hey, let's rob the Gringo!' They assume since I don't look like them, I' don't speak the language. I hate Mexico."

I saw something similar in Florida one time visiting my brother, where some Cubans were whooping it up in a really great restaurant. Some Canadians very loudly said "Waitress, can you tell those Mexicans to keep it down?" You could have heard a pin drop! Then one of the Cubans yells "Mexicans? Do we *look* Mexican to you? I actually *Belong* in this country, man!" and then the others started yelling and it went South fast. The Canadians evidently assumed that anyone Hispanic had to be from Mexico, which - I learned that night - is a serious sore spot with Cubans and Puerto Ricans and Argentinians and other Hispanic-Americans. Evidently nobody wants to be associated with Mexico, *Particularly* Cubans.

Racism is such an interesting thing. Ugly, but interesting: Everyone always picks a pariah and says "I'm not like them," and invariably they get pretty violent about it given enough time.

Anywhoo, it ended in a fight in the parking lot. The Canadians lost. I had pompano cooked in a brown paper bag. It was amazing! There was this roast pork thing, too. Cuban food rules! It's even better than Southern food.

Saw him on a Scotish talk show once, and his accent was the craziest thing, it slid all over the place. Started out American, then went Scots, then kind of went halfway between, which was sort of like the audio-negative of American Southern. Weird. I imagine he probably has to put a good deal of effort into *not* sounding like most of the people he works with.

I'm given to understand that the shifting-accent thing happens to EVERYONE, more or less. You lock two people with different accents in a room for two hours to have a conversation, and by the time they come out they'll have temporarily picked up some of the characteristics of each other's speech. It seems to be just a subconscious thing we do to adjust, although some are more susceptible to it than others.

As for John Barrowman, he's said that he's used to an American accent since he not only grew up over here but did most of his pre-Who work over here -- but he still winds up falling back into his old Scots dialect every time he visits his relatives in Glasgow.

I always thought they were called "spaghetti westerns" because they were shot in Italy...

Wouldn't it be more proper to call them "paella westerns?"

Indeed, the ultimate scene in Stargate Atlantis' Vegas episode was shot in the only desert in Canada.

I'm waiting for the Doctor to be regenerated as a very wise teenager, and his companion is an elderly man (or woman.)

I believe you're referring to Dolly Sods?

Frankly, my pasture turns into a desert every summer--we even have prickly pear cacti to prove it.

Just to plug--West Virginia is a great vacation destination. We've got things of interest for history buffs, art buffs, music and theatre fans, whitewater rafters, railroad afficianados, and even techies and space geeks (The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, for one). We're a four-seasons destination. In the autumn, the only difference between here and Vermont is the price--our fall color is spectacular and there are lots of quaint B&B's to stay in.

The only thing WV hasn't got is an ocean, but there are plenty of lakes for water sports and fishing.

Cavers can explore miles and miles of subterranean passages both mapped and wild. Birders can join in migration counts. We have wildflowers everywhere in all times of the year. We also boast the second-longest single span bridge in the world (New River Gorge Bridge.) If you come at the right time, you can BASE jump off it!

WV is also very convenient to much of the Eastern US, and we have several airports for those from further afield. The one "bad" thing would be the road system--it's servicable considering the geography, but it can be tricky for those not used to it, or who failed physics.

Addendum: I've also found fossil coral on top of my mountain in Monroe County, at an elevation of around 2500 feet.

Which area are you referring to, then? Dolly Sods is a peculiar spot in Grant County; what's the name of the area you said is a desert?

I just sent emails to the Grant County Visitor's Bureau, and to a friend of mine in Monroe County who's a walking encyclopedia of all things West Virginian, so hopefully one or the other will have an answer.

That there's a desert here doesn't surprise me--there are lots of "rain shadowed" areas in the lee of the mountains, where the rainfall is significantly less than in other areas. Our ranch here in Mineral County and its surrounding area got very drought-struck the year before last, but on the east side of Patterson Creek Valley, the grass stayed green. It was kind of surreal--you cross the creek and the lanscape turned from brown to green.

Technically, we're in an area called the "shale barrens." I wish I'd known that before we purchased this place!

On io9 someone made this comment on the casting of the new Who companion, and summed up Who fandom perfectly.

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I expect Coleman's casting will follow hallowed Whovian tradition.

1) "OMFG, how can this no talent skank be allowed to pollute the Tardis? Damn you Moffat, you've molested my precious childhood memories again. You are dead to me. I mean it. This time."

2) "OMFG, she's so painfully unwatchable I feel compelled to post my annotated, time-coded scene-by-scene recap of how badly this travesty sucks Dalek gun-stalk."

3) "OMFG, she's leaving? How can I live without this incandescent star lighting up the sky? Just look at the no-talent skanks in the running to replace her..."

This is a fixed point in geekdom that must play out, no matter what.

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Pretty much.

I've seen a few people theorize that she will be Susan.

Remember her?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gFI9aNSlo

The Doctor's first companion. And his grand-daughter.
Considering she will be joining the show for the Christmas Special and next year is the 50th Anniversary of the show it would be kind of neat to have her come back.

Since we have "The First Question", why not "The First Companion".

Just a thought.

Crap, keep double posting.

As for Ben Browder, Yes!